Nobody's Sad To See Office Paper Clip Go

Answer Desk

To M.J., Hampton, who wanted to know if Microsoft is getting rid of the helpful "Clippy". The answer is yes. Microsoft will not include it its new Office XP software product.

Clippy, the animated Microsoft "Office Assistant" that pops onto the computer screen and offers helpful advice, made its debut more than four years ago with the launch of Microsoft Office 97. It was created by Microsoft's research arm and suggests ways users can simplify a task. However, the animated paper clip never caught on with Microsoft Officer users.

Web sites and message boards were created to instruct people on how to disable it. An August 1997 PC Magazine article referred to Clippy as "an idiotic animated helper" and "a useless doodad."

Clippy has proved so unpopular that Microsoft launched a marketing campaign for the Office XP which plays up the annoying personality of the paper clip. The marketing campaign pokes fun at the animated character and will continue until the end of May.

FYI: How hated is Clippy? James Fallows, author and national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, said in a February 2000 Article on Microsoft culture that the company made him sign a nondisclosure agreement not to reveal the name of the animated paper clip's creator.